El Norte

Gregory Nava

United States, Guatemala

1983

140 minutes

Color

1.78:1

English, Spanish, K'iche'

458

Synopsis

Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. It’s a story that happens every day, but until Gregory Nava’s groundbreaking El Norte (The North), the personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism. A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery, El Norte is a lovingly rendered, heartbreaking story of hope and survival, which critic Roger Ebert called “a Grapes of Wrath for our time.”

Cast

Arturo Xuncax Ernesto Gómez Cruz
Enrique Xuncax David Villalpando
Rosa XuncaxZaide Silvia Gutiérrez
Lupe XuncaxAlicia del Lago
InformerMiguel Gomez Giron
ForemanJose Martin Ruano
JoefitaStella Quan
PedroEraclio Zepeda

Credits

DirectorGregory Nava
ProducerAnna Thomas
Production SoundRobert Yerington
CinematographyJames Glennon
EditingBetsy Blankett
ScreenplayGregory Nava and Anna Thomas
CastingBob Morones, Toni-Conchita Rios and Jean Gill
Set designerDavid Wasco

Disc Features

AVAILABLE IN BOTH DOUBLE-DVD AND BLU-RAY DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITIONS:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Gregory Nava
  • New audio commentary featuring Nava
  • In the Service of the Shadows: The Making of “El Norte”: a new video program featuring interviews with Nava, producer and co-writer Anna Thomas, actors Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez and David Villalpando, and set designer David Wasco
  • The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva, Nava’s 1972 award-winning student film
  • Gallery of Chiapas location-scouting photographs
  • Theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by novelist Héctor Tobar and Roger Ebert’s 1983 review of the film

From the Current

PRESS NOTES: THE WAY NORTH

Feb 4, 2009

Criterion’s release of the landmark American independent El Norte (in both standard DVD and Blu-ray editions) is reminding critics not just of the film’s beauty and poignancy but of the subject matter’s sadly undiminished relevance. “Made in 1983 but unavailable on DVD until now, Gregory...

Promised Land: El Norte

by Héctor Tobar Jan 14, 2009

In the 1980s, with the wounds of the Vietnam War still fresh in the collective American memory, Hollywood took up the themes of empire, democracy, and war. A...

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Available Editions

458_nortedvd_w128 Add to Cart

DVD

2 Discs

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96

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Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96